Fiber Optic Delay Line FAQ

• What is a fiber optic delay line?  It is a system to Tx and Rx that defines a delay between the input to the output based on the length of the fiber cable.  Optical switches enable control of the end to end optical path – hence making the delay line programmable.
• How does a fiber optic delay line work?   Fiber optic delay line transforms Analog RF signals (from 100KHz to 60GHz and more) into an optical signal that propagates through controlled fiber optic cable.  The signal is “retrieved” demodulated by a RFoF receiver.  The quality of the analog signal is maintained by proper design of the Tx and the Rx section based on BW signal dynamic range and noise floor.  The travel time through the fiber (temperature independent) defines the delay to the RF signal .
• What are fiber optic delay lines used for?  Fixed or controllable RF signal delay is utilized in RADAR system development, checking and calibration, simulation of RF communication systems and other lab and experimentation applications.
• Why use RF over Fiber for signal delay?  The RFoF-based delay line offer wide range of accurate delay, repeatability, compact size, temperature independent operation and  with minimal group delay.  Signal integrity is maintained by proper design of the RFoF Tx and Rx.